Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic

Speech at the Introduction of the Budget for 1953 in the National Assembly

December 15, 1952

Honoured Parliament, I avail myself of the opportunity to review,
before the Budget is debated, the state of world affairs, the internal
situation of our country and the tasks lying ahead.

Characteristic of the state of world affairs is the fact, that US
monopoly capitalists are driving ever more openly for world domination
and, to achieve this end, are preparing ever more openly a third World
War. In this connection warmongering directed against the Soviet Union
and the peace camp is increasingly sharpening.

To further their plans of world domination, the American imperialists
are subjugating the other capitalist countries. By means of the
"Marshall Aid" and similar ways they have brought these countries into
a state of economic dependence, are concluding alliances with the
reactionary capitalists of these countries, who are ready to sell the
independence of their country for dollars and the possibility of
continuing, as "junior partners" on the side of the American
exploiters, the robbing of their own working people. The American
imperialists are imposing on these allied countries a mad armament
race, which is a source of big profits for them, as it is they who
deliver the considerable part of the armaments. They have also started
rearming Western Germany and Japan. They are feverishly building
military bases all over the world and are organising various aggressive
alliances.

At the same time, the monopoly capitalists of the United States of
America are exploiting their allies economically to an increasing
degree. While protecting the American market with a high tariff they
are penetrating Britain and France. They ate forcing their way into the
colonies of their allies, tenaciously and furtively ousting them to
take over their positions themselves. Thus, for instance, it has become
evident during the last few weeks that the Americans are preparing to
take hold of the Iranian positions of theBritish
capitalists who have been ousted from there, and the British are now
manoeuvring to get a share in the American company which is handling
the Iranian oil to get, at least, some sort of consolation. The
Americans have forced their way into Morocco, the French colony, and,
by dint of a pact they concluded in 1832 with the then Sultan, have
extorted the possibility of having their goods imported duty-free.

The fight for the markets has sharpened out of proportions. It has
sharpened because after World War II the capitalist exploiters no
longer dispose of the area, inhabited by 800 million people, which
belongs to the peace camp led by the Soviet Union. The competition in a
shrunken capitalist world market is also sharpened by the reappearance
of Japanese and West-German competition. Colonial exploitation is made
difficult by the fact that the colonial and semi-colonial peoples'
struggle for independence against their oppressors has been given a
tremendous upsurge by the victory of the Soviet Union and the
liberation struggle of the Chinese people. During the last year or two
the fight against the oppressors has flared up with tremendous force in
these colonial and semi-colonial countries, from Tunisia to South
Africa and from Iraq to Viet-Nam.

An inevitable concomitant of American capital's striving for world,
domination and the preparation of a war is the acute fascisation
process beginning in the United States itself. The aggressor wants to
secure his hinterland at home, in his own country. He wants to make it
safe by persecuting, terrorising the democratic organisations that
defend peace and oppose war and above all the communists and
progressive citizens.

In the United States they are beginning to persecute everyone who
raises his voice for civil liberty, in defence of peace, or who just
does not agree with the warmongering of monopoly capital. America is
teeming with an unprecedented host of informers, stool pigeons, agents
provocateurs and catchpolls. The secret police gets the fingerprints of
every worker. In the streets of the town there are signs urging the
citizens to spy on their neighbours and report on their experiences to
the secret police. In "free America" this secret police constitutes a
power, the like of which was never known in the police states of old.
That secret police is all-powerful. The United States has now arrived
to the point where the members of the future Eisenhower Administration,
headed by Mr. Dulles, the designated Secretary of State, have formally
asked the leader of the secret police to make out a testimonial of good
character for them, before they assume their office as secretaries.

The monopoly capitalists of the United States are preparing their aims
of world domination and their aggressive plans under the pretext of
defending democracy and freedom. Andas
they control in the United States – and in other capitalist countries –
apart from the state power: the press, television, the theatres, the
Church and the leadership of most trade unions, they have succeeded,
for the time being, in misleading the masses of the people. While
babbling about freedom and democracy American monopoly capital is
creating war hysteria in which it is beginning to destroy even the last
vestiges of the people's freedom, and is increasingly assuming all the
functions of the German Nazis, of German fascism.

It is doing the
same thing on international scale too. It is enlisting into its service
the war criminal generals of Hitler and Mussolini, the German and
Japanese fascists. It woos Franco, the butcher of the Spanish people.
It carefully gathers the remnants of the fascist rabble escaped from
all parts of the world and supports the reactionary, oppressive forces
the wide world over, just as Hitler and Mussolini used to do.
Simultaneously, it persecutes, wherever it is in position to do so, the
forces of peace, democracy and popular liberty. In this way the United
States are gradually becoming the gendarmes of the world.

It .goes with the forced rearmament, imposed by the American
imperialists on their allies, that the war industries are snatching
away an ever growing portion of the raw materials from the peace
industries – a fact which leads to increasing unemployment and to a
decline in the living standards of the working masses in the capitalist
countries.

Concerning this fact the latest reports of the UN Economic Commission for Europe contain such statements as:

"Citizens of Britain, France, Western Germany, Scandinavia, the Low
Countries, Belgium and Switzerland are eating less, drinking less,
smoking less, travelling less, entertaining less and buying fewer
clothes and household goods in 1952 than they did in 1951... The first
quarter of 1952 was a period of stagnation in nearly all branches of
the retail trade and of actual depression (i.e., crisis) in some." And
that the situation has not improved during the year is shown by a
statement made by the same Commission, published on November 30, this
year, which begins by stating that „Industrial production, in general,
was lower than in the similar period of the previous year... in Western
Germany production has slowed down, and in France for the first time
after the war the level of production in the second quarter was lower
than in the first quarter. The production in the United States was
about 5 per cent lower than in the second quarter of 1951, and it was
also somewhat lower than even in 1950. Similar trend is evident in the
other industrial countries, too, where production was either stagnant
or decreasing. Consumption in general has decreased."

The industrial workers in the capitalist countries try to defend their
living standard by, organising huge strikes. In the United States the
steel workers’ strike lasted for seven weeks and caused a loss of 20
million tons of steel. As a result of the deteriorating economic
situation it is coming to be ever more recognised in most capitalist
countries that the real enemy is the ally itself, the United States of
America, and that the independence and freedom of these countries are
menaced solely from one side, by the imperialists of the United States.

Growing Anti-Americanism in Subjugated Capitalist Countries

Now, the question arises of whether American monopoly capital has
subjugated the other capitalist countries to the extent that the
possibility of capitalist countries waging war against each other or
against the United States is excluded. This question has been answered
by Comrade Stalin in his epoch-making work "Economic Problems of Socialism in the U. S. S. R." in the following "way:

"Outwardly,
everything would seem to be 'going well’: the USA has put Western
Europe, Japan and other capitalist countries on rations; Western
Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Japan have fallen into the clutches
of the USA and are meekly obeying its commands. But it would be
mistaken to think that things can continue to 'go well' for all
'eternity', that these countries will tolerate domination and
oppression by the United States forever, that they will not endeavour
to tear loose from American bondage and take the path of independent
development...

"Can it be assumed that they will
endlessly tolerate the present situation, in which, under the guise of
the 'Marshall plan aid' the Americans are penetrating into the
economies of Britain and France and trying to convert them into
adjuncts of the United States economy, and American capital is seizing
raw materials and markets in the British and French colonies and
thereby plotting disaster for the high profits of the British and
French capitalists. Would it not be truer to say that capitalist
Britain and, after her, capitalist France, will be compelled in the end
to break from the embrace of the USA and enter into conflict with it in
order to secure an independent position and, of course, high profits?

"Let
us pass to the major vanquished countries, Germany (Western) and Japan.
These countries are now languishing in misery under the jackboot of
American imperialism. Their industry and agriculture, their trade,
their foreign and home policies, and their whole life are fettered by
the American occupation 'regime'. Yet only yesterday these countries
were great imperialist powers and were shaking the foundations of the
domination of Britain, the USA and France in Europe and Asia. To think
that these countries will not try to get on their feet again, will not
try to smash the US 'regime', and force their way to independent
development, is to believe in miracles."

The ingenuity of
Comrade Stalin's observations is proved by scores of facts indicating
that the allies of the United States are beginning to consider their
plight as intolerable. The policy of American monopoly capital, like
fascist policy in general, is one of exploitation, violence, cruelty
and ruthlessness and it constantly clashes with the vital interests,
self-respect and national pride of its allies.. Recall to mind the
manner in which the United States Government rejected Britain's request
to have a British Commander-in-Chief head the Mediterranean fleet. They
refused to grant the British Government's request to be allowed to send
observers, at least, to attend the talks on the Pacific Pact, whereas
an invitation was extended to Australia and New Zealand, a country of
two million inhabitants.

The French people are indignant, because the United States is
penetrating into the French colonies. They are embittered by the
American capitalists' threats to force France with the aid of the
German fascists and Franco, and of imposing their will on the French
people in this way. They are plundering Western Germany openly and
impudently. For instance, they carry away 9 million tons of coal bought
cheap, and sell back part of it as American import, at double the
buying price. US soldiers and officials, who, under various pretexts,
are overrunning by the tens of thousands Britain, France and the other
allied or occupied countries, are beginning to arouse the anger of the
inhabitants of these countries by their swaggering behaviour and
roughness, by their excesses and riotousness.

This is so throughout the world. The newspaper "Freies Europa", which
is published in Western Germany, writes to the effect: "In Europe, as
in Asia, anti-American feeling is ever mounting. At' a time when
anti-American feeling is increasing in the Far East, first of all, in
Japan, it has been growing in Europe, especially in Western Germany,
where criticism of the Americans is becoming ever sharper and assuming
such proportions as is beginning to threaten seriously the relations
between Washington and Bonn. But anti-American feeling is also rising
in France, Italy, Belgium, Britain, Sweden and Austria."

The Paris correspondent of the American periodical "Collier's" writes
the following on this subject: "Throughout Western Europe there are
being made upon the United States violent attacks even by
non-communists. These assaults are astounding, disturbing and worrying
every American... The noise is loudest in the three countries: Britain,
France and West Germany.''

This periodical also complains that the peoples are beginning to regard
the United States of America and not the Soviet Union, .as their enemy.

Indeed, from London to Tokyo the walls of houses are covered with ever
more inscriptions of "Yankee, go home!" This popular feeling has led to
a situation in which in South America pro-American presidential
candidates are defeated one after the other at the elections. In the
United Nations, where two years ago the United States still retained
unlimited control with the aid of its allies and satellites, it now
encounters one defeat after the other. The squabble in Western Germany
about the ratification of the military separate Treaty is also caused
by the resistance of the West German masses to the pro-American policy
of the puppet government of Bonn. The aggression of the American
imperialists is beginning to meet with proper reaction all over the
world.

The United States Stand Behind the Provocations Against the Hungarian People's Republic

Hungary, as a faithful member of the peace camp, constantly feels the
results of both the aggression and the hatred of the American war
inciters. It is the United States of America that has prevented Hungary
from being admitted to the United Nations. The United States and its
satellites have obstinately rejected all logical proposals by the
Soviet Union to admit to the UN all the countries – including Hungary –
which apply for membership. The United States is willing to admit to
the UN only its satellites.

To this day the United States has failed to restitute a considerable part o£ the
Hungarian property which the German fascists and the Hungarian Arrow
Cross men looted to the West in, 1944-45. The United States Government
is bound by the Peace Treaty to restitute that property, it is bound to
do so by its own solemn declarations. A considerable part of that
property has found its way into the United States itself, and in spite
of our repeated attempts to get it back, the United States has
obstinately refused to comply with our rightful demands which it
recognises itself. This has compelled us to voice our protest in
diplomatic notes on more than one occasion.

In the course of this
year the Government of the Hungarian People's Republic was compelled to
declare itself against the separate treaty which the United States
concluded with the so-called government of Western Germany concerning
the establishment of the "European Defence Community" and the setting
up of the "European Army". In its statement the Hungarian Government
declares:

"The
Government of the Hungarian People's Republic regards the Bonn and
Paris agreements as further attempts on the part of the Governments of
United States, Great Britain and France to prepare, by drawing Western
Germany into the aggressive Atlantic Bloc, the launching of a third
world war they are planning against the Soviet Union and the People's
Democracies; to legalise the remilitarisation of Western Germany ; and,
by making the occupation of Western Germany permanent, to raise another
obstacle in the way of the unification of Germany....

"The
Hungarian people suffered for a long time under the yoke of the
'alliance' between their own oppressors and the German imperialist
conquerors. Due to the ambitions of the German imperialists to rule the
world, Hungary was plunged into criminal war adventures twice within
one generation, bringing infinite sufferings and misery to the
Hungarian people. The Hungarian people wish to continue their peaceful
building work undisturbed and refuse to become again victims of German
imperialism and militarism."

The Government of the Hungarian
People 's Republic was justified in taking a stand in its statement
against this additional attempt on the part of the imperialists at
unleashing a new world war.

Last October the Government of the Hungarian People's Republic sent a
delegation to the German Democratic Republic That government delegation
had the task of strengthening the friendship between the Hungarian and
the German working peoples; of assuring the citizens of the German
Democratic Republic that the working people of the Hungarian People's
Republic have their attention turned with the greatest sympathy and joy
towards their self-sacrificing and successful work as well as their
endeavours to unify their country which has been split in two by the
imperialists into a strong, free, independent and democratic Germany.
During our stay there we could see for ourselves that in clearing away
the debris caused by war, in reconstruction and in building socialism
the working people of the German Democratic Republic and, in
particular, its enthusiastic youth, had made achievements they may well
be proud of. We could also see for ourselves that the working masses
are united in supporting their government in its fight waged for a
unified and democratic Germany, for the defence of peace, and that they
are faithful members of the mighty peace camp which extends from the
Pacific Ocean to the Elbe. The Hungarian Government delegation's visit
in Germany has strengthened the friendly ties and mutual sympathy
between the German and Hungarian peoples, and has been an important
contribution to the fight against the American imperialists, for the
defence of peace.

In connection with the aggression of the United States of America the
Government of the Hungarian People's Republic was compelled to protest
when the United States Senate, in an Unprecedented violation of normal
relations between peaceful countries, appropriated a hundred million
dollars for the purpose of smuggling escaped fascists, spies, murderers
and saboteurs into the countries of the peace camp, thus including our
country, whose missions are arson, murder, sabotage and espionage. As
to the way these hundred million dollars are to be used and who the
allies and the delegates of the American-type free world and democracy
are, good indication has been made by the recent trial of the bandits
who had been sent across the frontier from Yugoslavia to Hungary. We
have known for a long time and have pointed out in official statements
and notes that the spies, agents provocateurs and saboteurs exposed in
this country have been supported, in most cases, by the United States.
Since the Rajk trial it has been, evident to us that the Tito gang,
which is committing depredations on our Southern frontier, is an agency
of the American imperialists; that Tito himself is a long-standing
agent of the capitalists and fascists. When, during the Rajk trial this
became evident, the capitalist press consistently denied it. Today, it
is admitted by the capitalists themselves.

Upon his return from Yugoslavia, Handler, a correspondent of the New
York Times Magazine, stated: "In Washington I was definitely convinced
that Tito's declarations about the socialist construction of Yugoslavia
need not be taken, seriously. In fact, Tito has set about turning
Yugoslavia into a bourgeois state of the fascist type. Tito's bourgeois
state of the fascist type is an outpost on our frontier of American
aggression. Accordingly, the bandits, who had been sent across our
frontier, were armed from head to toe with American equipment –
American was the rubber-boat, the submachine-gun, the dagger, the
cyanide potassium and the handcuffs. This trial was very instructive
for our working people, for it showed them again that behind the
American propaganda which preaches freedom and democracy there are the
dagger, the poison and the fetters. We have drawn the conclusions from
this trial and will be still more vigilant and ruthless to all enemies
of our people and our peace.

We Defend Our Sector in the Peace Front

We have seen the sight presented by the imperialist camp the productive
forces of which are stagnating, in which millions of people suffer from
unemployment, in which cut-throat competition is engaged in among the
countries, and each of them is ever bent on subjugating and despoiling
the other, in which a new world war is in feverish preparation. Quite
different, diagonally opposed to this, is the sight presented by the
camp of the Soviet Union and the countries of people's democracy. The
aims of this camp do not lie in the robbing of others, in war, but in
mutual assistance, in peace. Its economy knows neither crises nor
unemployment; Its development is balanced. Its aim is not to secure
maximum profit for the capitalist, but maximum satisfaction of the
material and cultural requirements of the peoples. This economy
guarantees a regular rise of the working people's standard of living.
Here there is no cut-throat competition, the main features of this
democratic camp are the cooperation and mutual assistance of its
countries. Accordingly, the economic forces of the democratic camp
develop quickly. At the world historical XIXth Congress of the
Communist' Party of the Soviet Union Comrade Malenkov drew a comparison
between the growth of industrial output from 1929 to 1951 of the'
Soviet Union and that of the United States. This comparison shows that
during that period the growth of the Soviet Union was six: times faster
than that of the United States, eight times faster than that of Britain
and twelve times faster than that of France. Comrade Malenkov pointed
out that the rate of development of the countries of people's
democracy, too, is incomparably faster than that or the capitalist
countries. This the Economic Commission of the United Nations was
compelled to admit in its report-of November 30,1952, which speaks of
the depression in the capitalist countries:. In East Europe industrial
production continued to rise at about the same rapid pace that was
characteristic of the previous quarter.

For us this is so evident and well known that I will not enumerate the
figures that prove it. I only wish to call attention to one point of
view. It is clear to all that fast economic growth of the peace camp is
accompanied by a corresponding growth of the pre-conditions of a strong
national defence. In contrast to the imperialist camp which is ever
trying to frighten the weak by boasting of its strength, the members of
the socialist camp refrain from sabre-rattling. But it is only natural
that this issue should arise, and at the XIXth Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union more than one speaker emphasised
that Soviet national defence constitutes a force that can repel the
attack of any aggressor.

Amidst the stormy applause of the Congress Comrade Malenkov pointed out for the imperialist aggressors:

"The
Soviet Union is not frightened by the threats of war-mongers. Our
people have experience in fighting aggressors and are not novices at
giving them a drubbing. They gave the aggressors a drubbing way back at
the time of the civil war, when the Soviet State was young and
comparatively weak, they gave them a drubbing in the second world war,
and they will give future aggressors a drubbing too if they dare to
attack our homeland.

"The facts of history cannot be
ignored. And the facts show that as a result of the first world war
Russia dropped out of the system of capitalism, while as a result of
the second world war a whole series of countries in Europe and Asia
dropped out of the system of capitalism,. There is every reason to
assume that a third world war would bring about the collapse of the
world capitalist system."

To this we can only add that in
accordance with its growing economic strength the Hungarian people's
democracy takes care to reinforce our national defence. We spare no
sacrifices in order to develop the faithful guardian of our peace and
future development, our People's Army, so that it may live up to its
tasks. A similar state of affairs exists in the other countries of
people's democracy. And the best example of what a liberated people
defending its country is capable of achieving is presented by Korea
where all efforts of the United States and its satellites have been
frustrated by the heroism of the Korean people and the Chinese
volunteers, aid where – as Comrade Vassilevsky, the Minister of Defence
of the U. S. S. R., established – the United States suffered the most
shameful defeat of its history.

The XIXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a
mighty review of forces. We were able to convince ourselves at this
Congress that the revolutionary, democratic and communist parties of
the capitalist and the colonial countries are courageously carrying
forward the banner of the peoples' liberty and national independence.
The 800 million strong bloc of the peoples building the new life
constitutes a mighty force both economically and in regard to national
defence, supported by the partisans of peace, the fighters for progress
all over the world.

Given that the members of the capitalist camp will sooner or later leap
at each other's throats, and that the national defence of the states
building Socialism is strong, it does not follow that our fight for the
defence of peace can be diminished even to the slightest degree.
Comrade Stalin pointed out what a tremendous achievement it will be if
the success of the peace movement results in preventing a particular
war, in its temporary postponement, in the temporary preservation of a
particular peace, in the resignation of a bellicose government and its
succession by another that is prepared temporarily to keep the peace.

Therefore, we will continue our fight for peace increasingly. This
fight is all the more necessary as the enemy like a wolf in sheep's
clothing claims that his aggressive intentions are peaceful and
democratic. Comrade Malenkov said in connection with this : "In
their endeavours to mask their policy of conquest, the ruling circles
of the United States seek to pass off the so-called 'cold war' against
the democratic camp as a peaceful defensive policy and' frighten their
own peoples with the non-existent danger of an' attack from the
U.S.S.B. Masking the aggressive plans and the military operations now
in progress with demagogic phrasemongering about peace is a
characteristic feature of the policy, of the bosses of the Atlantic
bloc."

In the fight for peace these demagogues must be
exposed. In this sphere the Soviet Union has rendered immeasurable
services. In the United Nations it is the Soviet Union that from the
very beginning of the war in Korea has consistently fought for peace.
It was on a proposal by the Soviet Union that the armistice
negotiations were begun. The Soviet Union's proposal for an immediate
ceasefire and truce was the only one which would have immediately put
an end to the bloodshed. However, all attempts of the Soviet Union at
peace have failed in the face of the resistance of American warmongers,
who are accumulating innumerable billions of dollars from the
devastations and carnage of the war in Korea. According to the American
capitalist newspapers 30 months of the war in Korea have cost more than
the first two and a half years of the Second World War. It follows from
this, too, that for the American war industrialists the war in Korea is
a source of still larger profits, of a still more abundant flow of
gold. For this reason these vultures of war do not want to have
anything to do with peace.

In is the undying merit of the Soviet Union that it is constantly
exposing before the entire world the phrasemongering about peace of the
aggressive bloc of the Anglo-Saxon imperialists. It has proved that
these warmongers, while preaching about peace, want to have nothing to
do with prohibiting the atomic bomb and the bacteriological weapons,
and are even afraid of a precise definition of the term aggressor. The
partisans of the peace camp must unrelentingly continue to expose the
warmongers who in the name of "freedom and democracy of the "community
of free nations" and "free Europe" are preparing a new war. It must be
pointed out unceasingly that in the very heart of the' 'free world'',
the United States, all forms of fascism, racial persecution and
anti-semitism are gaining ground, that in Korea and elsewhere American
imperialism commits all the inhuman acts and depravities – the mass
murder of defenceless women, children and old people – that were
committed by Hitler's fascist bandits. It should be pointed out that
while the House of Commons is lecturing the countries of people's
democracy in the name of freedom and democracy, the noble peers of the
House of Lords are holding a debate on whether the African women and
children in Kenya were driven into horrible concentration camps with
bloodhounds or with police dogs. It should be pointed out that in Kenya
and elsewhere the British colonisers are arranging massacres and have
shut tens of thousands of Africans fighting for their most elementary
rights in concentration camps surrounded with gallows, the horrors of
which surpass in many respects the concentration camps of Hitler.

The world-wide peace movement, whose Congress is now taking place in
Vienna, can already look back upon tremendous achievements. Here in
Hungary we have been able to see all around us everywhere in connection
with our peace congress how the peace movement is spreading, embracing
our entire working people. It Is in connection with the issue of peace
that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of our citizens, who
never took an active part in our political life before, have become
conscious that they can no longer sit back idly and watch, that they
too must take an active part in the defence of peace and thereby in
safeguarding all the achievements and results attained by our people's
democracy. In our country the peace movement has mobilised and won over
even such strata of people, whom it would have been difficult for us to
approach by just political agitation. A considerable section , of the
old intelligentsia, which not so long ago still regarded our aims
warily or even sceptically, has understood, through the issue of peace
that its place is on our side and that by defending peace it is also
defending its well perceived interests, its own future.

The same can be experienced internationally. The last peace appeal was
already signed by 600 million people throughout the world. The
imperialists, who at the outset spoke of the peace-petition campaigns
with scorn and contempt, are beginning to see that the peace movement
is a mighty power which thwarts their ' schemes more and more. Evidence
of this is the desperate effort with which they wanted to prevent the
Vienna world congress of the partisans of peace. However, arrests and
refusals to issue passports have been of no avail. The peace congress
of peoples has met in Vienna to organise further struggles against war,
to weld together more closely the hundreds of millions of people
demanding peace. Naturally, the Congress is also being attended by our
delegates that they may express the voice of the Hungarian working
people, who demand and defend peace.

As a loyal member of the peace camp, the Hungarian People's Democracy
is playing its part in the fight for peace, in exposing the imperialist
war incendiaries. We are ceaselessly on guard; ready to frustrate the
attacks to be launched against us by the American imperialists and
their satellites. We are carrying on our fight unrelentingly for the
consolidation of peace, are strengthening international cooperation in
every field, drawing closer the indestructible bonds of friendship with
our liberator, the mighty Soviet Union, as well as with the countries
of people's democracy. At the same time we are strongly fostering our
national defence' in order to be able to defend against all attacks our
sector of the peace camp.

The Economic Situation of Our Country

Now I shall speak of the economic situation of our country; as the
honoured Parliament, may see from the Bill submitted by the Minister of
Finance, the income side of our budget for 1953 adds up to
52,739,000,000 forints, showing an increase of almost 40,000 million
forints over the 1952 figure. This rise corresponds to the economic
advance made in 1952. The "budget is "balanced, that is, it has closed
with a surplus of 875 million forints. The purchasing power of the
forint is as stable as ever. The success of the Third Peace Loan
indicates the stability of our financial situation and the generosity
of our working people. The original value of 1,300,000,000 forints in
which the loan was planned to be floated was in eight days
oversubscribed by 37 per cent. 1,781,000,000 forints were subscribed by
3,154,000 citizens – many more than the number of families in our
country. The success of the Peace Loan was a happy evidence of the
increased economic strength of our country and the political unity of
our people.

I am now in the position to inform the Honoured Parliament of the fact
that on the 20th of next month the reparation payments to the Soviet
Union will have been completed. Hostile rumours at the time had it that
the reparation obligations imposed unbearable burdens on us. Thanks to
the generosity of the Soviet Union in considerably reducing the sum of
the reparation payments and extending the term of payment from six
years to eight years, we have been able to live up to this obligation
with honour. At the same time, with the friendly and selfless aid of
the Soviet Union, we have been able to build our socialist future
successfully and rapidly.

Industrial Production Rising Evenly and Vigorously

During the eleven months of this year our industrial output has grown
evenly and vigorously, in accordance with the stipulations of the Plan.
This year, our coal production has increased 22.2 per cent, bauxite
production 58 per cent, crude-oil output 18.4 per cent, aluminium 16.2
per cent, alumina output 22.5 per cent, steel output 14.1 per cent and
electric power production 20.3 per cent.

Provided we continue to fulfil the targets of the Plan in December,
industrial output will have increased this year by 22 per cent as
compared to last year. This figure refers to the global fulfilment of
the Plan. Within this figure there is overfulfilment as well as
underfulfilment of certain targets.

As regards coal, this year the original plan called for the production
of 18.5 million tons of coal. In the course of the year, however, it
became apparent that, although this quantity meant an increase of 3.2
million tons as compared to last year's output, even more would be
needed. Therefore, we asked our comrades working in the mines to try to
augment the original target with an additional 400,000 tons. The
comrades did promise this. The year has not yet come to its end. It is
possible that not all of the 400,000 tons of surplus over the plan will
be produced, but certainly more than half of it will. Of course, our
brave miners would do a great service to our national economy if they
produced all the 400,000 tons.

Now we are just about to complete the third year of our Five-Year Plan.
On the basis of the present results it can be said that we have
fulfilled the targets of our augmented Five-Year Plan, and in fact we
have overfulfilled it in the case of coal. The rate at which coal
production has been progressing looks as follows: In 1950, our coal
production increased by one and a half million tons over the 1949
figure. In the following year the increase amounted to 2 million tons.
This year this increase is 3.2 tons and, according to the plan
augmented during the year, it should be 3.6 million tons. Next year the
increase will be 4.6 million tons. The production of pig iron for
steel, of steel, of electric power, of cement and of the other basic
materials is proceeding at a similar rate. I repeat that at the end of
the third year of the plan the development of our manufacturing
industry, as a whole, was keeping pace with the rate prescribed by the
augmented Five-Year Plan. Within this, our heavy industry is developing
at a rate somewhat faster' than that prescribed by the augmented plan.

I might remark that concerning our economic results the American press,
headed by the New York Times, modestly alleges that Hungary has run
into economic bankruptcy. The hungry imperialist dog dreams of bones...

The rate of development of our coal production is rapid when compared
with that of the capitalist countries. In Hungary per capita coal
production has doubled as compared to 1938, but in Britain, whose mines
were not at all damaged by the war, it has not yet reached the 1938
level. In Western Germany it is less than 75 per cent of the level of
the last year of peace. This year per capita coal production in Hungary
is 40 per cent higher than in France. Our coal production has come up
so well that this year we are producing 11 quintals of coal for every
quintal of wheat. Of course, this does not mean that we can neglect the
accurate fulfilment of our plan so far as coal production is concerned.
We must spare no effort to increase the production of this important
basic material in a planned way.

The trend of our oil production is rising, but here, too, there is a
slight lag behind the target. The reason for this was that we had to
hold back production in the new oil fields because we were not yet able
to provide the means of transportation needed for the oil wells.

Our fulfilment of the Plan was impeded by the neglect of
socialist work competition here and there. There is still much to be
done as regards the more efficient utilisation of machinery, the
effective organisation of work and work discipline:

This year's drought, of which I will speak in detail when discussing
agriculture, has had an unfavourable effect on the fulfilment of the
plan. Still, the economic aims set by our plan for 1952 proved to be
realistic and, thanks to the joint efforts of our workers and
intellectuals, they have been fulfilled in the whole. We have made
significant strides forward on the road of turning our country from an
agricultural country possessing some industry, into an industrial
country possessing an advanced agriculture. In accordance with the
Plan, the sector of our industry producing means of production has
grown faster than the sector producing consumer goods. In 1953, the
ratio between the two will be 60 : 40. Our industry is fast
becoming more concentrated, more centralised. This development is shown
in the manufacturing industry through the fact that while in 1938 there
was an average of 91 workers employed in one factory, today there are
525 workers for every factory. Today, nearly half, 48.7 per cent of the
workers work in enterprises which employ more than 1,000 workers.

The number of industrial and agricultural enterprises employing over a thousand people, exceeds 200.

During the Five-Year Plan we have striven to decentralise industry and
to move it to the provinces. The first results of this attempt are
shown by the fact that while in 1938, 62 per cent of the industrial
workers of the country were concentrated in Budapest, today only 56.7
per cent work in the capital. We have a good gauge of the
industrialisation of the provinces: if we take the 1938 figure for 100,
then the figure is now 456 in the County of Pest and Bacs-Kiskun, 312
in the County of Szolnok, 306 in the County of Fejer and it has doubled
in the Counties of Hajdu-Bihar, Heves, Komarom and Esztergom also.
Concentration in the planned economy has led to the fact that the 3,900
enter-prises that existed in 1938, 87 per cent of which employed
less than a hundred workers, have dwindled to 1339 enterprises
today, Which, however, employ nearly twice as many workers as were
employed in 1938.

Hungarian industry is concerned, besides striving to finish well the
plan for 1952, with the plan for 1953. Next year we wish to increase
the output of our industry by 16 per cent. To satisfy our aim of
increasing above all the production of the basic raw materials, the
increase in the output of coal, pig iron, steel and crude oil will be
much bigger than this figure. We wish to increase coal production-by
4.6 million tons. This figure equals an increase of 24 per cent. To
show just how rapid this development is, I wish to mention that this
year's and next year's increase in coal production is greater than the
total coal output in 1938. Among the varieties of coal we are mainly
increasing the production of hard coal, which can be coked. Here the
plan calls for an increase of nearly 50 per cent. The production of pig
iron for steel is to go up 44 per cent. There is to be an increase of
28 per cent in the output of electro-steel. Our crude oil output will
be increased by 25 per cent. Aluminium production is to increase by 51
per cent and alumina output by 27 per cent. These figures indicate that
we are continuing the development of the basic material supplies for
industrial production.

These targets are set high, but they can be reached, they can be even
overfulfilled. If we want to begin the next plan year well, then the
industries which are lagging behind in their fulfilment of the plan
must spare no efforts to catch up during the two weeks that are left.
In addition, great care must be taken, lest the mistake of the last
month of the previous year be repeated, when all efforts were
concentrated only on the completion of the plan year, and the
preparations for January were neglected. Consequently, the January
output fell way beyond the December figures and the ill effects of this
lag were seen for long months in the statistics on the fulfilment of
the plan.

It is still a general defect of our industry that it cannot produce in
a steady, even rhythm. In the first ten days of the month there is
usually a considerable lag, for which they try to make up in the last
ten days of the month with overtime, and shock-work. The situation is
similar when we look at the quarterly plan. It is apparent in the
production of the entire year: at the end of the plan-year they try to
make up for the lag at the beginning of the year with rush work and
overtime.

As we have said, the basic-material industries, – coal mining,
metallurgy, and power production – are facing particularly great tasks.
In coal mining it must be ensured that full advantage is taken of
mechanisation, and that the reluctance to use the mining machines,
which are designed to lighten the heavy toil of miners and to increase
productivity, should cease. The great task we have set our coal miners
for the next year obliges the Ministry of Mining and Power to get fully
ready for next year's production by eliminating the faults experienced
this year. We must make the miners aware of the importance of the
development of mining and we must see to it that our Party, the
Hungarian Working People's Party, the Trade Union and the Union of
Working Youth also do their best to attain this goal. It is not only
more coal that we have to produce next year, but better coal, too.

The development of our economic life has made it necessary to divide
the larger ministries into smaller ones, in order to have a better
control of the various areas. This method has proved to be quite
effective and therefore we shall continue it. At present three such
ministries are under organisation: the Ministry of Chemical Industries,
whose establishment has been made imperative by our fast-growing
chemical industry, the Ministry of Higher Education, which will embrace
our 27 colleges and universities, and the Ministry of Metallurgy, which
is destined to speed up the rate of the development of our metallurgy.
The budget for these ministries under organisation has been included in
the Bill which will be submitted by the Minister of Finance.

The rapid development of siderurgy demands that we put the Stalin Iron
Works into operation as soon as possible and that we speed up the
reconstruction of the Diosgyor Metallurgical Works. We must put our new
electrical power plant into operation, we must finish the Inota Power
Plant. Along with all these industrial constructions, homes for the
people working there must be built. Parallel with the development of
the basic industries, the building industry, and particularly the
cement industry must be expanded, and the new cement factories under
construction must be completed.

It is a special task to stress particularly the fulfilment of the plan
by those large plants which are especially important for our foreign
trade, for our exports. As a consequence of the drought, as I will
mention later, we have considerably cut down on the exports of our
agricultural products and we are importing large quantities of fodder.
If we do not want our raw-material and machine imports from foreign
countries to decrease, as a result of these changes in our foreign
trade, then we must make up for the shortcomings thus arising through
industrial exports.

Therefore, it is particularly important that such large iron and
machine-building factories of national significance like the Ganz
Waggon Factory, the MAVAG, the Beloyannis, the Gheorghiu-Dej Shipyards
and the Gyor Waggon Factory, which are important not only from the
point of view of exports, but for the development of our socialist
industry as well, should certainly fulfil and if possible overfulfil
their targets.

We often find that our factories are reluctant to undertake export
orders. This incorrect policy, of course, exacts its vengeance, for the
raw-material and machine supply of these same plants depends in no
small measure on the imports which are made possible by our exports,
the delivery of our goods abroad. I repeat that in this field the
harmful and incorrect practice hitherto carried on must change. Also
the attitude of neglecting quality for the sake of quantity must be
altered. We must improve our plans not only in quantity but in quality
as well. The work of planning in our people's economy must be improved,
for in this field, too, considerable shortcomings were evident during
1952.

Plan discipline is still not a strong point of our economic life, as
this is indicated by the large number of industries and factories
falling short of their targets. Some of our economic leaders and
directors frequently quail when they are confronted with difficulties,
they are afraid to take a firm stand, and do not demand discipline,
economising, and quality; they choose the path of least resistance.
They do not like to have defects pointed out and, therefore, suppress
criticism from below. These phenomena are present in other areas of our
People's Democracy as well, and we must take measures against them
everywhere.

And we have to struggle against self-satisfaction, boasting of
superficial results, carelessness, and the lack of vigilance, against
the acquiescent mood that things are going well, anyway. If we fail to
take action against such phenomena, we will not be able to solve well
the tasks facing us.

Finally, we must definitely improve our safety equipment and
installations for labour protection, and must take good care that all
the measures passed to guard the health of our working people be
strictly complied with. This year we have again raised this question
and it must be admitted that up to now adequate results and especially
a change for the better have not yet been effected in this field.
Therefore, we must more and more definitely demand of our ministries
and directors that they install safety equipment and comply with health
measures. Our Party organisations, trade unions and Union of Working
Youth members should regard the control of these measures as one of
their most important tasks and intervene wherever they observe neglect
in this respect.

To carry out the tasks of our planned economy for next year 146,000 new
employees are needed. This figure indicates that the manpower
requirement is way above the number of new workers being turned out by
the schools. In connection with this it is worth- '. while to point out
that from England, which proudly calls herself a "welfare state", one
hundred thousand people emigrated in the first half of this year
because they had not been able to find a secure living at home. In a
country as prosperous as the Netherlands every year tens of thousands
of the youth go abroad with the help and support of State subsidies
because jobs and a living cannot be assured them in the country.

The production figures for 1952 demonstrate a tremendous upsurge in our
industry. They also demonstrate the good work of our industrial
workers, and technical intelligentsia. And when we enumerate our
achievements, we must gratefully remember the many-sided, selfless aid
the friendly Soviet Union, our liberator, constantly renders us. The
inexhaustible treasury of Soviet experiences is available to us
practically in its entity and is an inestimable contribution to our
socialist construction. The significance of mutual aid among the
people's democracies is also increasing and becoming an ever greater
help in our economic development.

Agricultural Production

Now I wish to speak about our agricultural production. Our crops have
been most disadvantageously affected by the unfavourable weather and
consequently the agricultural yields have fallen rather far behind the
targets of the plan. It is well known that there were heavy and
prolonged frosts in May, and from the end of June there was a drought
and heat wave lasting for seven weeks which, according to the
experiences of the Institute of Meteorology, had been unparalleled in
this century. On the other hand, almost twice as much rain as the
average for several years back fell in the autumn, in the months of
October and November. The frosts and the drought had an unfavourable
effect on the grain crops and caused exceptionally heavy damages in the
plants requiring hoeing. The autumn rains disrupted crop gathering,
made autumn ploughing, deep-ploughing more difficult and disturbed the
making of adequate preparations for next year's spring work. The damage
caused by the bad weather would have meant a catastrophe in capitalist
times, as they spelled catastrophe in neighbouring Yugoslavia, where
now a veritable famine is raging and hundreds of thousands of peasants
are becoming impoverished.

Our country, however, is a State of the working people and as such is a
well-organised, strong, farseeing State, which not only ensured public
provisions, with a number of measures, but, :in spite of the heavy
damages caused by the weather, made provisions for the smooth
development of our people's economy. These measures include the fact
that we have considerably reduced our food exports and at the same time
have purchased consider-able quantities of fodder grains and forage
from the friendly countries and first of all, the Soviet Union. This
has made it possible to reduce the extent of our collection of maize
and potatoes and thus to ameliorate the position of the working
peasantry. Agricultural credits in a value of over 300 million forints,
have been renewed and many millions of forints have been newly loaned
for the purchase of sowing seed and similar purposes. Last but not
least, we have tapped the reserves collected in the previous year.

With the aid of these measures we were able to achieve that, although
we suffered a drought in 1950, too, our public provisions could be
ensured in spite of this year's drought. I must add right away, that in
spite of the frost and drought this year's crop could have been much
better than it was, had we observed the rules of modern farming
methods, and modern agronomy. In May this year agricultural experts
visited us from the German Democratic Republic. The German comrades
were astonished at our low yields. They thought that the poor
handling of fertilisers was most to blame for the low yields. Again and
again they called our attention to our incorrect handling of
fertilisers, as a result of which usually fertilisers that had lost
their effectiveness and consist only of straw are put into the soil.
According to the opinion of the German comrades, as a result of correct
fertilisation alone – which after all requires no investment or surplus
work – the yield could be increased by 25 or 30 per cent. These
comrades pointed out that we paid insufficient attention to the
selection of sowing seeds and deep ploughing.

When I visited in the German Democratic Republic in October, I saw for
myself that although the soil there is as a rule not as good as ours,
and although this year the weather was not too favourable in the German
Democratic Republic either, they harvested 16.5 quintals of wheat per
hold (0.57 hectare) there. In Czechoslovakia, also hit by the frost and
drought, especially in Slovakia, the average wheat yield was 13
quintals per hold. Everybody knows, and the newspapers have pointed out
innumerable examples to show that in our country, too, the cooperatives
and individual farmers who followed the rules of cultivation and
scientific agronomy achieved outstanding results in spite of this
year's frost and drought.

It follows from the foregoing that we must concentrate all our efforts
to increase the yield of our crops and our agriculture as a whole
and to achieve in this field the results obtained by the other people's
democracies more advanced than we are. It is particularly important
that we fulfil the plan of this year's grain sowing down to the last
hectare, for a small percentage is still to be completed as a result of
the bad weather. Since the Liberation it repeatedly occurred that we
were compelled to sow part of the autumn wheat during the end of
December and even the first half of January and with good soil
preparations and favourable weather this late sowing hardly influenced
the crop results. Now again we have to sow all the autumn grain that
our plan calls for, down to the last hectare.

The development of
our animal husbandry shows a more favourable picture. This is partly
owing to the fact that as a result of the good crop last year our
livestock increased. As a result of the poor fodder crops, the
wintering of this increased livestock is a source of considerable
worry. We must carefully preserve the fodder available, we should
economise with existing resources and keep the livestock from
diminishing, up to the time that green fodder can be fed them again.

In connection with agriculture, I wish to report on the problems of
socialist transformation in the village. During the year 1952 the
producer cooperative movement developed evenly and vigorously.

The number of producer cooperatives and producer cooperative groups
increased by 658. As many as 92,403 working peasant families owning
713,500 holds of arable land joined the cooperatives. At present 5,315
producer cooperatives and cooperative groups are functioning in our
country. The total tillage area of these producer cooperatives is
2,213,000 holds. This amounts to 22.8 per cent of the country's tillage
area. In addition to this, the household farms of the producer
cooperative members represent 178,000 holds, that is 1.8 per cent of
the tillage area of the country. The families in producer cooperatives
consisting of 318,500 persons, now possess 24.6 per cent of the tillage
area of the country, that is nearly one fourth. The total area (tillage
area, vineyards, pasture land, etc.) of the producer cooperatives is
2,606,000 hold and their total membership is 446,900.

The tillage area of the State farms, experimental farms and specialised
farms is 1,190,000 holds, 12.7 per cent of the tillage area of the
country. This figure is over the target set for State farms under the
Five-Year Plan. Part of the cause of this growth is that the State
farms have provisionally taken over for cultivation land offered by
workers with dual occupation (Workers owning a strip of land and engaged both in industrial and agricultural work – Editor's Note) or
from kulaks, and which could not have been immediately incorporated
into the producer cooperatives. It is obvious that these areas, after
which ground-rent is paid, should be handed over to the cooperatives as
soon as possible. The combined tillage area of producer cooperatives
and of the State farms amounts to 37.3 per cent of the total tillage
area of the country.

The livestock of the producer cooperatives
increased vigorously. In February 1950, the collective pig stock of the
producer cooperatives was 46,400 and this figure increased to 522,000
by October this year. The number of cattle increased from 19,000 to
151,000, and of sheep from 41,000 to 274,000. The livestock of the
State sector also grew considerably. As much as 19.6 per cent of the
pig stock and 11.1 per cent of the cattle herds of the country were in
the possession of the State sector.

In the development of the producer cooperatives care was taken to keep
this growth from being too rapid. The main emphasis was laid on the
development and consolidation of existing cooperatives, the better
training of their leaders, the better organisation of work processes,
and the improvement of work discipline. We shall continue this policy
in the future, too. It is a result of this correct development policy
that although the bad weather this year naturally had its ill-effects
on the incomes of the cooperatives, too, their rate of healthy growth
did not suffer and the producer cooperatives continue to hold a great
attraction for the individual farmers. The lands of about 85 per cent
of the producer cooperatives have been subjected to commassation to
make them suitable for large-scale farming. The sizes of the producer
cooperatives are also increasing. We; already have 375 producer
cooperatives which farm on tillage areas of over' 1,000 holds. The
number of our all-cooperative villages and towns went up this year from
489 to 665. For instance, Bekescsaba and Oroshaza have become
all-cooperative cities. And today there is hardly a community in the
country without a producer cooperative.

The machine stations are one of the most important contributing factors
to the strengthening of our producer cooperatives and the development
of our agricultural production. The machine stations
underwent-considerable development during the year. During the first
nine months of the year they performed 32.6 per cent more traction and
power work than during the corresponding period of 1951. Still the
machine stations did not fulfil their tasks by far and fell short of
their targets, too. Their work is often unorganised, their book-keeping
and their system of Recounting are unreliable and give cause for many
complaints.

There are many complaints also about the quality of the work done by
the machine stations, too, and the degree to which the machines are
utilised. The fault lies first of all with, the Ministry of Agriculture
and the leadership of the machine stations. The work of the machine
stations should be urgently improved, for in 1953 we will entrust them
with much greater tasks. For instance, the number of universal tractors
at the machine stations is to be doubled. The number of combines is to
be tripled. We want to increase the number of cultivators and
harvesters by one third. The equipment of the machine stations in 1953
will permit them to do all the basic soil-preparation work of the
producer cooperatives, if they work well.

The further improvement in the quality of our livestock is an important
part of next year's plan for the development of agriculture. To this
end 12,000 purebred animals will be made available to agriculture. The
production of industrial crops and of newly acclimatised crops shall
also be improved. We wish to increase the area devoted to cotton
growing by 38 per cent and to rice growing by more than 25 per cent.

This year's drought has put a new emphasis on the question of
irrigation. Although at present we are already irrigating six times the
area that was under irrigation in the Horthy era, we are still at the
very beginning in this respect, for irrigated land amounts to only 2
per cent of the drought-ridden parts. Next year we wish to augment the
irrigated area by 56 per cent. I wish to add directly that the results
of our investigations made this year indicate that with an utilisation
of local means and possibilities a quarter million holds could be put
under irrigation, without any particular financial investments. Our
producer cooperatives and Councils should pay greater attention to
these local possibilities of irrigation.

I wish to speak about produce collection in a few words. In spite
of the drought the work of produce' collection can be called
satisfactory, and this is connected with the stabilisation of citizens'
discipline and the better work of the organs of collection. Our working
peasantry fulfilled its wheat delivery obligations to 99 per cent. On
the other hand the kulaks have fallen way behind in their obligations,
a fact which indicates that there is still much compromise in the work
of the Councils. It does happen sometimes that what the kulaks fail to
hand in is later levied on the working peasants who have already
fulfilled their delivery obligations. Such action violates the
worker-peasant alliance and is unlawful and hence action should be
taken against it. There is much unevenness in the fulfilment of the
collection plan, too. For instance, the County of Zala fulfilled its
wheat collection plan 114 per cent by the end of October, and at the
same time the County of Bacs-Kiskun fulfilled it only 85.5 per cent.
The undisturbed flow of our public provisions demands that we carry out
our collection plan, which we have reduced because of the drought,
according to schedule. All the prerequisites for this are given.

Economising

I must speak of economising, not of economising in definite areas or in
definite cases, but about the attitude of many people to this question.
In the capitalist world economising in production and consumption was
provided for by the insecurity of existence and the insecurity of
tomorrow. The industrial worker economised with the raw materials he
was entrusted with because if he failed to do so, the capitalist gave
him the sack and he was threatened by unemployment and hunger. The
agricultural labourer, the farmhand and the servants who had to fear
the lord lieutenant standing behind them with a whip in hand were also
thrifty with the property of the large estate owner because otherwise
they would have been thrown on the labour market, the gathering place
of the unemployed. But the peasant who farmed his own, also took good
care of every single ear and every single grain of wheat for his life
was an eternal question mark, he never knew when a bad crop or illness
would push him to the brink of bankruptcy and impoverishment.
Therefore, all his life he skimped. The worker who never knew when he
would join the ranks of the unemployed was thrifty, and the ordinary
people had to save stingily to have a few pennies left for their old
age.

The situation has changed considerably in the People's Democracy.
Unemployment and poverty are things of the past and gone is the urge
which under the capitalist era impelled the working masses to be as
thrifty as possible. The discipline of poverty imposed by the
capitalists has disappeared and conscious socialist discipline and
along with it the sense of socialist thrift is taking its place.
However, until this consciousness develops and strengthens, we must
fight with increasing efforts for economising along all fronts. Until
the worker has gained a thorough consciousness of the fact that he is
working for himself everywhere, he will not be as thrifty with
materials, with electric power and work time as if he were using his
own.

The same holds true for the workers of the producer cooperatives and
for the State farms. The member of a cooperative who in former times
would not have left for the world a single stalk of grain standing on
his own land, who took good care lest his grain spill, is now less
thrifty and treats the collective wealth, the property of the
cooperative negligently, until he learns that the cooperative is just
as much his own as his land used to be. It is one of the greatest
achievements of the People's Democracy that the working people are
optimistic and are confident of their future and one of the ways in
which this confidence is shown is that the harassing worry over thrift
which came of insecurity in the past, is gone. But economising is still
a virtue needed along every line and anyone forgetting this commits a
serious error.

This confidence more than once goes over into a kind of carelessness of
which the enemy is glad to take advantage for his own ends. Let me
illustrate with a single example. On December 1st last year, we
abolished rationing and restored the free sale of agriculture produce.
This measure was correct and the beneficial effects of its success were
felt economically and politically alike. Nor do we wish to change it in
the future. The success of this measure, however, is causing
considerable carelessness too. It happened in recent months that the
assistant in a State food store give as much as 75 or 100 kilograms of
lard to a single shopper, without batting an eyelash. This assistant,
and his superior, too, were surprised when we called their attention to
the fact that with such carelessness they were making things easier for
speculators and hoarders.

I may add that just a few weeks ago in our State trade special rewards,
premiums were paid to store managers who overfulfilled the plan in
foodstuffs, that is whose assistants industriously talked buyers into
purchasing the largest possible amounts of lard, sugar, meat, flour and
other foodstuffs. Obviously it is wrong to encourage the assistants in
our State trade along such lines. But the example itself indicates that
we are not careful enough, that we are not sufficiently aware of the
fact that thrift in every area does us good and will do us good in the
future, too. We found that when the hue of a part of our bread darkened
without any drop in quality – even the benevolent took this with
surprise, for they never thought that the drought would necessitate
such a measure if we want to ensure a smooth flow of public provisions
until the next harvest. We must fight in all fields against the
squandering of materials, against the lack of thrift. And we must fight
against carelessness, self-satisfaction, and want of vigilance, for
those faults here and there are becoming obstacles in the way of our
progress.

Improved Public Health and Higher Cultural Standards

Another thing I wish to speak of is public health and the rise in the
cultural standard of our people. A few data will be most to the point
if I wish to describe the situation of our public health. In 1952 the
natural birth rate increase per 1000 people was 47 per cent higher than
in 1938. By now our country's population is over 9,500,000. The number
of marriages per 1,000 inhabitants is 20 per cent higher than it was in
1938. The infant mortality rate is down in 1952 to nearly half the 1938
figure. Tuberculosis which was called the "Hungarian disease" inthe
past is being gradually repelled and in 1952 fifty-seven per cent fewer
people died of this disease than in 1938. In Hungary today more
hospital beds are available per 10,000 people than in France or
Belgium. As a result of public health activity, the death rate is lower
in Hungary than in England or Austria.

We will do our best in the future, too, to keep improving public
health. This is greatly needed, for, although' we have achieved results
in reducing the infant mortality rate, there is still much to be done
in this field. The proportion of live births also lags way behind the
corresponding figures in the U.S.S. R. or Poland. In this respect grave
harm is caused by the vicious practices of unscrupulous physicians and
midwives, the flagrant growth of the number of abortion cases, of which
we have taken notice only in the last year and in connection with which
we intend to introduce a number of measures.

In spite of these troubles, the health of our people is better today
than it has ever been before and we wish to make it improve further.

Our public education is vigorously developing. Ninety-nine per cent of
the children of school age were enrolled in the first form of the
general school (eight-form primary school). The number of those who
have finished all the eight grades of general school is fast growing.
This year one hundred thousand children are attending the eighth form
of general school and along with them 30,000 adults are studying the
material for the eighth grade in schools for the working people. This
school year 119,000 students are registered in the secondary schools
and in addition 19,300 adults are studying in the workers' secondary
schools. At present there are 46,000 students enrolled in our colleges
and universities and 3,300 students are participating in correspondence
courses.

The social constitution of the secondary schools and universities has
undergone a radical change also. During the current school year 66.7
per cent of the secondary-school students and 58 per cent of the
college and university students are of working-class and peasant
origin.

The character of the education offered in our secondary schools,
colleges and universities has also changed. In accordance with the
demands made on them by the national economy, our colleges and
universities are turning out a growing number of engineers,
agronomists, physicians and teachers. The entire educational system has
been brought to correspond more fully with the demands made by
socialist construction and everything that is needed for effective
studies has been provided. In 1951 as many as 116 kinds of university
and 426 of primary and secondary school text-books were published in
7,580,000 copies. We are seeing to it that as the people come to think
more highly of the importance of education, they gain at the same time
a greater respect for the work of educationalists, university and
college instructors. As a result of all these measures, our country,
which once lagged rather far behind, especially in the field of college
and university instruction, is gradually beginning to outstrip the most
highly advanced capitalist countries, in this respect. Under Horthy
there were 16 college students per 10,000 people in Hungary. By October
1952 this figure had increased to 51, that is, it had more than
tripled. Formerly leading countries in this respect, such as England,
France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, have fallen way
behind us.

A good one hundred years ago Istvan Szechenyi complained "My people
will be lost for they are in want of science", and he kept repeating,
"An abundance of educated people gives strength to the nation". The
figures which I have cited as indicative of the present situation in
the field of public education show that our People's Democracy has done
rapid and thorough work, which fact will influence the whole future of
our people in this exceptionally important field. We will do our best
to keep on expanding the scale and raising the level of our public
education in the future as well.

I wish to say a few words about our Academy of Sciences. The Academy
has undertaken to bring its research activities gradually to
concentrate on those matters which directly serve the development of
our people's economy, which serve first of all industry and
agriculture. In addition to these activities it naturally does not
neglect efforts to advance the social sciences. The Academy of Sciences
has worked out a five-year plan and the preparation of a geological map
of our country heads the programme under this plan. This task is that
much more important as it seems that on the greatest part of our
country's territory, no thorough geological research had ever been
carried on. And the experiences of the past few years would indicate
that in the depths of our country's soil there is still a great deal of
coal, oil, bauxite, non-ferrous metals, and other useful minerals.
Therefore, a geological map would be of tremendous economic
significance. The plan of the Academy stresses such practical problems
as the efficient use of domestic coal as fuel, the solving of mining
problems, the extraction of rare and non-ferrous metals. The closer
relationship it has developed with the science academies of the Soviet
Union and of the people's democracies in particular is a great aid for
our Academy of Sciences.

The cultural position of our People's Republic is characterised by the
fact that the cultural demands of our working people are rising with
such rapidity that although we have produced significant quantitative
and qualitative results alike in cultural and educational work among
the people, we are still far behind the fast-growing requirements. This
year we have devoted much effort to expanding the cultural network in
the provinces and as a result our cultural institutions encompass the
entire country. At present there are 1,640 regional culture homes and
there are regular cinema showings in 2,426 localities. The Rural
Theatre held performances in 2,025 villages, mainly communities where
no theatre company had ever passed before. This year 3.4 million
working people attended 41,000 "Free Land Winter Evening Programmes". (Popular-scientific and cultural lectures regularly held for agricultural workers. – Editor's Note.)

In autumn of this year we compiled statistics on the public libraries –
the first such compilation for 67 years. The results showed that at
present 8,536 public libraries function in our country. In the villages
there are 4,494 public libraries. It is characteristic that in an
agricultural county like Csongrad there are 442 public libraries. I
must add that this list does not include the 6,200 general-school, the
450 secondary-school and the over 1,000 apprentice-school libraries,
the college, Party, scientific, technical and other special libraries.
Including these the present number of libraries is about 16 to 17
thousand. In our country there is at present a library for almost every
600 people. I think that these figures speak for themselves.

The standard of our cultural services has also risen. Well-known is the
success gained by our feature films not only in the people's
democracies and the Soviet Union, but even in the capitalist countries
where they could be shown at all. The international success of
Hungarian films can be gauged among other ways by the three prizes won
at the Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. The tour of the State Polk
Ensemble in the Soviet Union and China should also be listed among the
international successes of new Hungarian culture.

Special mention should be made of the great honour accorded our new
culture in distinguishing two of our young writers with the Stalin
Prize. I wish to speak of the fact that this year in the Soviet Union,
Petofi's collected poems were published in three volumes and, also in
the Soviet Union, a 700-page comprehensive anthology of Hungarian
poetry was also published.

These facts show only in part the general interest manifested by the
camp of progress throughout the world for Hungarian cultural
achievements which follow in the wake of the successes of our People's
Democracy. This interest, and I may add sympathy, has been enhanced by
the magnificent showing made by our sportsmen and sportswomen at the
Olympic Games in Helsinki, where they won 16 Olympic championships and
42 Gold Medals, which achievements came as a result of our planned
physical education activity.

The greater cultural demand is indicated by the facts that this year 85
million tickets have been sold by the cinemas and that in the first
nine months of the year there were 42 per cent more theatre-goers than
during the corresponding period of last year. In a year 760,000 people
visited the opera, six times the 1938 figure. The Munkacsy Exhibition
was visited by 430,000 people and the exhibition entitled "The Road to
Communism" attracted over 200,000 spectators in a month. Now there are
830,000 radio owners, and next year when 120,000 wired radio sets are
installed, their number will exceed one million.

This rapid development increases the demand for higher quality in the
cultural field. There is a demand for higher standards in the
ideological and artistic content of our cultural work and there is a
demand that the creative work of artists reflect the great issues of
the people's flourishing life, socialist construction and the
international peace struggle and that it be permeated by a lofty
socialist ideological content and consciousness. We are looking forward
with particular interest to the work of our writers who this year
clarified a number of important questions appearing in the field of
creative literature through long debates on ideology and of whom, as a
result of this clarified conception, we expect new works of higher
standards.

The Most Important Tasks

Summing up, what are our most important tasks?

1. We must increase the economic strength of our State in order to
fulfil well the fourth year of the plan, which marks an important phase
in our socialist construction.

2. In industrial production, besides improving plan discipline, special
attention should be devoted to the problems of increasing production in
the basic materials, coal, metallurgy.

3. In agriculture let us focus our attention on the increased yields
and the plan for the socialist reconstruction of the village – of the
further balanced and organised development of the producer
cooperatives.

4. In both national economy and State administration we should fight
for the strictest enforcement of economising, for the improvement of
leadership and against every manifestation of bureaucracy.

5. In the fields of culture, people's education, public health and
sports we should constantly keep in mind that we have to ensure
conditions which make for further development. '

6. We should use all means to strengthen the State discipline of the
citizens of the People's Democracy, its social order, State and
national defence.

7. Let us further develop the political consciousness and patriotism of our people.

8. Under the leadership of our great Party, the Hungarian Working
People's Party, we should strengthen the worker-peasant alliance, the
even stronger union of the democratic forces rallied behind the
Hungarian People’s Independence Front.

9. Let us be even more devoted soldiers in the tremendous peace camp
led by the liberating Soviet Union and let us defend our own section in
this camp against all imperialist aggression even more resolutely.

The year 1952 was a year in which our People's Democracy became
consolidated even more. This consolidation is reflected not merely in
the facts and statistical data of the economic, sanitary and cultural
fields. The unity of our people, their devotion to our People's
Democracy have deepened and strengthened. The worker-peasant alliance –
that union of democratic forces which, rallied in the Hungarian
People's Independence Front and under the leadership of the Hungarian
Working People's Party, was obvious in every event of our national life
– remained unbroken. International solidarity, the sense and awareness
of solidarity with progressive mankind, needed for the defence of
peace, has deepened. Let us think of the unified stormy demonstration
of mass protest and indignation against the Greek monarcho-fascists
which was shown after the murder of Comrade Beloyannis and which we saw
repeated so impressively when French reaction cast Comrade Duclos into
prison. We have all witnessed that our working people followed and
studied the XIXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
with greatest attention and sympathy.

This attention and sympathy is encouraged and deepened by the feeling
of gratitude and thanks for all the friendly aid and selfless support
which is constantly rendered us by our liberator, the mighty Soviet
Union. This sympathy and feeling of gratitude flamed up into ardent
enthusiasm in our people when at this Congress the great leader of all
progressive mankind, our beloved Comrade Stalin, mentioned the
Hungarian People's Democracy, among the revolutionary shock brigades of
the world. We all felt that this honourable qualification not only
signifies' recognition, but brings with it obligations as well,
obligations the fulfilment of which, through our future efforts, our
selfless work, socialist construction, the defence of our peace and the
strengthening of international proletarian solidarity would make us
even more deserving of the name revolutionary shock brigade.

This honour and recognition imposes great obligation on all of us, but
particularly on our party, the Hungarian Working People's Party, which
during the past few years has been the leader, the power and the motor
of all our successes and development. It obliges us to advance firmly
and unswervingly on the road we have followed up to now. One of the
most important results of the educational and cultural development of
our working people is that they understand and appreciate even more the
generous and successful work done by our Party during the years that
have elapsed since the Liberation. Our working people follow us firmly
and unitedly because they know that the road we are travelling is the
correct one and because they are certain that it leads to additional
successes and additional victories.